loads of goods, which he sent to Saltwood Castle, near Hythe, had been seized and were restored to Arundel (Eulogium, iii. 382; Usk, p. 37). His arms—gules, a bend azure, and a martlet d'or—for which Arundel's had been erased on the hangings at Lambeth, were torn down and thrown out of window (ib.) His register was destroyed, and the records of his consecration and acts are lost (but cf. Wilkins, iii. 326). Before the pope restored Arundel, Walden, still de facto archbishop, appeared before the Duke of Lancaster and the archbishop de jure at the bishop of London's palace and besought their pardon; his life was spared at Arundel's instance (Usk, p. 37; Eulogium, iii. 385). Adam of Usk, who witnessed the scene, compares the two archbishops to two heads on one body.
Walden was taken from the liberties of Westminster and committed to the Tower on 10 Jan. 1400 on suspicion of complicity in the Epiphany plot against Henry IV, but was acquitted (4 Feb.) and set at liberty (Fœdera, viii. 121; Annales, p. 330; Traïson, pp. 100–1). But according to the French authority (ib. p. 77) last mentioned, he had been a party to the conspiracy. This testimony, however, carries no decisive weight.
Walden was not allowed to want, receiving, for instance, in 1403 two barrels of wine from the king; but he felt himself ‘in the dust and under foot of man’ (Wylie, iii. 125; Wilkins, iii. 378, 380; Gough, iii. 19). On the death of Robert Braybrooke, bishop of London, in August 1404, the forgiving Arundel used his influence in Walden's behalf, and induced Innocent VII to issue a bull providing him to that see on 10 Dec. 1404. But the king, who had a candidate of his own, refused at first to give his consent to the appointment; and it was only as a kind of consolation to Arundel for the failure of his attempt to save Archbishop Scrope in the early summer of 1405 that Henry at last gave way and allowed Walden, on making a declaration to safeguard the rights of the crown, to be consecrated on 29 June at Lambeth (Wylie, iii. 126; Le Neve, ii. 293; Wharton, pp. 149–50). He was installed in St. Paul's on 30 June, the festival of the saint; the canons in the procession wearing garlands of red roses (ib.) But Walden did not live to enjoy his new dignity long. Before the end of the year he fell ill, made his will at his episcopal residence at Much Hadham in Hertfordshire on 31 Dec. and died there on 6 Jan. 1406 (Gough, iii. 19). An interesting account of his funeral by an eye-witness, John Prophete, the clerk of the privy seal, has been preserved (Harl. MS. 431108, f. 97 b, quoted by Wylie, iii. 127). The body, after lying in state for a few days in the new chapel Walden had built in the priory church of St. Bartholomew's, with which his brother and executor was connected, was conveyed to St. Paul's and laid to rest in the chapel of All Saints in the presence of Clifford, bishop of Worcester, and many others. Before this was done, however, Prophete uncovered the face of the dead prelate, which seemed to them to look fairer than in life and like that of one sleeping. His epitaph is given by Weever (p. 434). It says much for Walden's character and amiable qualities that, in spite of his usurpation, every one spoke well of him. Prophete praises his moderation in prosperity and patience in adversity. Arundel, whose see he had usurped, adds his testimony to his honest life and devotion to the priestly office; even Adam of Usk, who reproaches him with the secular employments of his early life, bears witness to his amiability and popularity (ib.; Wilkins, iii. 282; Usk, p. 37).
John Drayton, citizen and goldsmith of London, by his will, made in 1456, founded chantries in St. Paul's and in the church of Tottenham for the souls of Walden and his brother and his wife Idonea, as well as those of John de Waltham, bishop of Salisbury, his predecessor as treasurer, and of Richard II and his queen (Newcourt, i. 754). It is not known what connection had existed between Drayton and the two prelates. By a curious coincidence, however, both Waltham and Walden had been rectors of Fenny Drayton.
A manuscript collection of chronological tables of patriarchs, popes, kings, and emperors, misleadingly entitled ‘Historia Mundi’ (Cotton. MS. Julius B. xiii), has been attributed to Walden (Wylie, iii. 125) on the strength of a note at the beginning of the manuscript. But this ascription is in a later hand, not earlier than the sixteenth century. The manuscript itself probably dates from the early part of the thirteenth century, which disposes of the alleged authorship of Walden, and is equally fatal to the attribution to Roger de Waltham (d. 1336) [q. v.] found in another copy of the ‘Historia’ (Harl. MS. 1312).
